“The business side said once again, ‘We can’t use you any more, so bye.’ ”

Lewis gave rambling answers and broke into spontaneous laughter as the interview unfolded. The prospect of tackling his pal, Jamal Lewis, sounds weird.

“He calls me Lew,” the linebacker said. “I call him Lew. We call each other Lew.”

Headed for Canton

Ray Anthony Lewis has long been regarded as the top player on one of the league’s best defenses. Love or hate him, his delivery in Wednesday’s talk reflected an off-the-charts energy that goes to his reputation as a five-star field general.

His eight Pro Bowls and two league Defensive Player of the Year awards give him an unapproachable mystique.

He will go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Yet he got knocked off center Wednesday when asked him if he remembers every little play he was ever in — such as the one in 2001 when Browns center Dave Wohlabaugh knocked him on his can.

“I don’t even remember who that guy is,” Lewis said, drifting into a tone of hilarity. “First and foremost, for him to knock me straight on my butt ... I couldn’t have seen him.”

Raven through and through

Lewis is part of some weird Browns history.

The franchise’s last pick as the 1995 Browns was wideout A.C. Tellison out of Miami (Fla.). Its next two picks in 2006 as the Ravens were Jonathan Ogden from UCLA and another Miami guy, Lewis.

The team was hijacked from Cleveland. Doesn’t Lewis feel as though part of him is a Brown?

“No,” he said, seemingly disgusted by the thought.

Doesn’t he get that Cleveland vs. Baltimore is a rivalry?

“I’ve never looked at it as a hate rivalry because of the disappearance,” he said.

Can’t he imagine how happy Cleveland fans were to beat Baltimore twice in 2001, with the Ravens coming off a Super Bowl?